Stewart Says It's Good To Be The King

Having gone from playing a starship captain to a mutant to a king, Patrick Stewart (Picard) is making talk show appearances to promote his role as Henry II in Showtime's production of The Lion in Winter, scheduled to premiere on Sunday, May 23rd.

In transcripts available at Vrrrm.com, Stewart spoke about drinking, knighthood, hair, and his inability to remember the name of the communicator pin he wore on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Joking with the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he would love a martini, straight up, Stewart explained that his son, also an actor, had taken a bartending course and was very strict about the number of olives permissible in the drink.

He would not, however, permit her to call him "Sir" since he has not been knighted. Upon hearing this, DeGeneres convinced him to put on a tiara and declared him a "Sir."

"It's a work of genius, this screenplay, and when something's that good, it deserves to be revisited," he said of The Lion in Winter, which was an award-winning film when it starred Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. "There are three Hamlets in London, this summer, for example; nobody questions if people would do it and do it again, because it's such a good piece."

On The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn, Stewart discussed his voice-over work, asking whether audiences think he has sold out. When Kilborn said he must make a lot of money to let producers tell him exactly what to do, Stewart joked, "I like to do the best job I can. You know, it's not a matter of just sitting there in a chair, and asking celebrities questions!"

The two then pretended to act out a sample voice-over, which ended with Kilborn saying, "You're fired. You're fired!"

Stewart had to correct Captain Picard's name when Kilborn mispronounced it, and flinched when the host called fans "geeky."

He said he had told his children that he was going to spend all his money in his lifetime, but would leave them the scripts and call sheets to sell, "a page at a time, on eBay."

Kilborn joked as well that Stewart must have grown his hair out to play Henry in The Lion in Winter, leading Stewart to insist that he had done so by using willpower.

The Patrick Stewart Network has reported that the actor will be making appearances as well on The Today Show on May 18th and on The View on May 21st.

Showtime is running a Making of 'The Lion in Winter' special daily between May 19th-23rd. Check listings for times.